Mike&the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
by RantWaitingToHappen
Summary: Mikes day goes from bad to worse when he's late to work after some unforeseen incidents occur, and no one's making it easy, either. SLASH. H/C. Eventual FLUFF. R&R Please! Thanks. :
1. Chapter 1

**A.N. I love love love SUITS because who doesn't? (Clearly I don't own them :[ otherwise I'd keep 'em locked in my closet and have tea with Donna and Jessica all the time) :D Um, so yeah, my first shot at a Suits fic, hope you guys like and review? The beginning of this was based on something I saw in real life recently that only goes to show skipping red lights isn't good guys! Enjoy. :) **

**1. **

Mike woke up, took a shower, put on his suit, skipped breakfast-that was for people who didn't have slave drivers as bosses, after all-and hopped on his bike, his bag against his back, strap over his shoulder.

He biked across the city roads. Harvey had him go through every single paper trail on their client and his company to locate anything their opponents might use against them in court plus find some dirt on the man suing their client and the company. Harvey had given him this enormous task on Monday and expected him to have it done, papers on his desk bright and early today. Yesterday had been Monday. Mike sighed. He was a fast reader with an eidetic memory, but what he thought sometimes was that Harvey totally forgot that he was also _human_.

He'd made the file room his sanctuary that Monday-stacks and stacks of boxes had arrived for him, and of course, Louis, seeing Mike buried in paper, decided to drop some of his own work on the associate. "Those better be at my desk my tomorrow morning Mister Ross. Remember, I'm your superior as well." had been his parting words.

Mike was quite proud of himself though. He'd finished both the work for Harveys upcoming case and Louis' grunt work at around four am and had then proceeded to pass out for about an hour and a half, until his alarm clock (which he had conveniently placed against his ear) had awoken him at 6:38am.

He had to be at the office at 8am, before either partner made it to their desks and gave him snide comments about having wanted the work in before they got there. Mike was pretty sure that after the amount of work he'd put in, he'd snap if either Harvey or Louis tried to get to him this morning.

He needed coffee. A lot of coffee. He was so tired, but it was 7:28am and in less than fifteen minutes he'd be at the office and once he'd accomplished his duties the stress on his shoulders would go away (if only momentarily) and he could maybe catch a few Z's at his desk before people started showing up. Seeing the green light, Mike started peddling, suddenly enthused to get to Pearson Hardman.

Nadine glared at the red light she was coming up to in her car; she was still forty minutes away from her kids school, and then another half hour from the daycare, and she had a meeting at eight forty-five sharp, and of course her ex-husband had bailed on her again with the kids. "Dammit." she cursed under her breath, so that the three kids in the back didn't hear her, and going against everything her father had taught her about driving and the rules of the road, she sped up at the red light. What with the traffic in New York, who would seriously notice the middle-aged mother driving through a red light?

Apparently a crowd of New Yorkers would notice, if you ended up hitting a guy on a bike with your bumper. "Oh my God!" She had hit the brakes as soon as she'd seen him, but it had been far too late by then. As a mother her first instinct was to check the backseat. Her two older girls were sitting there, wide-eyed and gaping, the three year-old was sobbing, but also uninjured. Quickly, Nadine stumbled out of her minivan to look at the young man she'd just hit with her car.

Mike legit had not seen that coming. At all. He lay on his side, overwhelmed for a minute, his body halfway underneath the car, and all he could think was 'I bet my suit got ruined, Harvey's gonna' bite my head off.'

"Oh God, oh Jesus Christ, I'm so so sorry, I shouldn't have done that, I'm so sorry, I didn't see you at all, and it's all my fault-"

Mike was surprised when he was able to get up off the ground and pull the rest of himself out from under the large vehicle. His bike was crooked in parts where it shouldn't have been crooked, but other than that, Mike realized he was okay. Well, not okay, per say, but he wouldn't need to get rushed to the emergency room anytime soon. He did have to rush to make it to work, though.

"Don't worry, I'm fine, just a couple of scratches. I'm late to being early, so uh, we can save trading insurance info." he left the shocked woman standing in the middle of the road, as he hopped back on his bike, ignoring the sharp pain that shot up his right leg, and pedaled his bike the rest of the way to work.

Two long blocks later his bike decided to fall apart. "No no no no, please." He begged the inanimate object. The front wheel was hanging on just barely, and the bikes' chain was tangled in the metal rods and one of the handles was twisted at an awkward angle, and Mike decided, with a heavy heart, to ditch the bike. It clearly hadn't been as lucky as he to have survived the fender bender and would only slow him down at this point. Without a bike, and with the limp he'd acquired, Mike knew it would take twice as long as he'd originally intended and wondered briefly if the world had decided to start conspiring against him when the sky darkened abruptly and rain started pelting him viciously as he held his bag close to his chest, under his suit jacket to keep the papers from soaking.

He was more than a little disappointed when he walked into the office almost a half hour after 8am. Sighing, Mike walked towards Donnas' desk. "Delivery." he held up his bag wearily.

Without looking up she tsked. "Harvey wanted those twenty minutes ago." was all she said, until she did look up and wrinkled her nose, "Oh Mike, you look like something the cat dragged in. You should invest in this thing called a car; has a roof and everything." the red head finally gave into the pity she felt for the soaked to the bone puppy and let him into Harveys office.

"Late again, I see. And wet." Harvey cringed. "Stop dripping on my carpet."

Mike rolled his eyes. "Here Your Majesty." he handed the older man the files in his bag.

"Bout damn time." the Senior Partner started flipping through them. "What'd you find?"

"Everything's in those files, I'm sure at Harvard they taught you how to read." Mike tried to not snap at his boss-because, you know, he was his _boss_, but he was tired and achy and wet and his bike was in some alley rusting in the rain right now and he still had to deal with frigging Louis. He couldn't think of anyone in the history of mankind who'd ever looked forward to that.

Harvey raised a brow. "Hey, cut it with the attitude, Pup, I'm not the one who was late _again_, and I'm not the one stupid enough to ride a bike every day to a law firm, much less in the rain. So like I said before, 'What'd you find?'."

Mike heaved a sigh. "The man suing our client has sued before, there was a case in 1994 where he sued his wife's doctor for malpractice, the case was dismissed as frivolity, and then in 2000 he successfully managed to sue the industry on his prior home when he started experiencing lung problems, supposedly because of the hazardous chemicals they produced. I dug deeper and found out he's been a smoker for nearly thirty five years, and no one else in his neighborhood complained about the chemicals. He bought a nice apartment in the city with the settlement the industry paid him, and now he's suing our company, which does have it's faults as well, but it's obvious this guy's one frivolous lawsuit after the other." he surmised.

"That's good." Harvey bent his head, started reading the files, and Mike stood there awkwardly for a minute before Harvey shot him a 'Why are you still here dripping on my carpet?' look-and yes, only Harvey could convey so much in a look-and Mike left the office, waving at Donna on his way out.

"Get a new suit!" was her response.

"Louis, here's the work you ask-"

"You're late Mister Ross. Here at Pearson Hardman we frown upon tardiness." Louis sneered at the associate, not looking up from the couple of papers on his desk, trying to look disinterested entirely.

Mike dropped the files on the Junior Partners desk and walked off, before the older man could say any more. As soon as he reached his desk, he turned on his computer and his shoulders sagged as he let out a long sigh.

He'd gone through so much paper work yesterday and all night that his fingers were littered with bandages to cover the paper cuts and typing was becoming a chore. In fact, staying awake was starting to become a chore.

Another firm associate-his least favorite, Seth, walked over to his bullpen and grinned when he saw Mikes wet attire, his blonde hair sticking to his head. "Look what the c-"

"Cat dragged in, yeah; try to be a little more original next time, yeah?" Mike was in no mood to deal with Seth right now.

"Whatever Ross, I'm only here to tell you Louis wants you in his office ASAP." With those parting words, the associate strode off.

Mike sighed. Could this day possibly get any worse? He stood up slowly, his knee nearly buckling under his own weight and rode through the pain as he made his way to the devils inferno.

**A.N. Doubt I got any of the characters down right (I suck at trying to write new characters) But yeah, review? :o Thanks! **


	2. Chapter 2

**2.**

After a twenty minute session in which Louis reamed him out about his lateness and his image making the firm look bad Mike wanted to shoot himself with a glock 9mm. He'd gone on to point out his half-dry suit, his unruly hair and 'that God awful skinny tie' of his. And he'd been the third person that morning to tell him he really did need to get a car; surely he could afford it on his salary.

Mike wanted to scream. No, he couldn't afford a car on his salary. His rent was due next week, his meals consisted of hotdogs and Chinese takeout, since he really couldn't afford much else, and the bills in his grammys Care Center were seriously piling up. And now he'd have to get a new bike on top of it all. He'd liked that bike.

After the lecture was over, Mike trudged over to his desk, his body all around achy, and reveled in the idea of just sitting down and taking the weight off his very sore leg. Of course, once again, things didn't go his way.

Donna was waiting by his desk, not looking very happy about it, either. "Harvey's been looking for you for like ten minutes. You are so not on your game right now." the red-head tsked. "Get your bony butt to the office." she chided, as she walked off to the filing room, in the opposite direction.

Mike sighed. The day was just beginning and already it sucked.

"Oh good, you're not dripping anymore." Harvey said, in a way of greeting, when the young man made his way into his office.

"Donna said you wanted to see me?" he questioned, not in any mood to banter.

"Pro bono case. All yours." Harvey tossed him a folder. "Don't screw it up, kid."

"Aye aye Captain."

At his desk, Mike looked through the case, knowing Jessica had actually told Harvey to do it, and that now it had been passed onto him. But Mike didn't mind pro bono work, helping the little man was what he did best. So he set to doing some research, something he also excelled in, about his client and why exactly she was suing her former boss.

An hour later he caught a taxi to her house, his over the shoulder bag in tow. He knocked at the door and rung the bell. No answer. Which was odd; he'd called ahead of time to tell her he was on his way, and she'd told him it was perfect timing, and that she'd be waiting.

"Mrs. Walters?" he knocked a little harder. That's when he felt something cold hard and metal against the side of his head and froze. Okay, so, he hadn't been serious at all when he'd thought about shooting himself with a glock earlier that morning.

The man shoved him into the house, gun still pointed at his skull. "Got another one. Was making hella' noise outside." From this angle, Mike could see the man was dressed in all black, a ski mask pulled over his face. Three other men besides the one holding a pistol to his head were in the room, all shoving objects of value into their bags, all armed.

"Search the pretty boy for a cell and put him upstairs with the others." the leader, presumably, ordered.

"On it." the lackey replied, pushing Mike upstairs, and down a hall. They reached a door that was being guarded by a tall, buff man, also sporting a dark mask. He signaled for the man to open the door and practically threw Mike in there.

Mike was met with the frightened faces of his client and her two young daughters. They were huddled together in the corner of the room. "Mr. Ross?" the woman, a Haley Walters, asked, clutching her girls tight to her.

He strained a smile. "Mike Ross, at your service."

This was turning out to be a very bad day...

**A.N. Already started working on the next chapter! It'll be longer, promise. Review please. :) Thanks. **


	3. Chapter 3

**A.N. Okay, had this whole scene planned out about the guys in black masks who'd broken into Mrs. Walters home and how there was more behind it, but holy shit, guys, I couldn't for the life of me even begin to write it down (for some reason they all had Scottish accents (which is cool, 'cause I love accents...but yeah, not the point) and the chemistry between Hayley and Mike-as victims, sucked). So...yeah, sorry if it like, changes abruptly and isn't what you expected . Hope you guys like it and review anyway? :I **

**3**

Harvey glared at his phone. He'd seen the kid leave the building at a little past 10am-that had been two hours ago. He rolled his eyes in disdain. He really hoped the kid wasn't taking his sweet time empathizing with the lady. Surely it didn't take him two hours to get a statement to build the case. He needed him here, helping him with their pseudo lawsuit case! "Donna, where's Mike?" he called out to his secretary, instead of just pressing the button that could connect them.

Donna looked back at him and shrugged in her seat. "I wasn't aware I was his babysitter."

Harvey sighed. This whole thing with lateness was becoming far too frequent. He'd tried the kids' cell twice already, and nothing.

Meanwhile, Mike wondered what on Earth he'd done to spur Gods' wrath today. He'd pulled an all-nighter, got hit by a minivan, his bike was trashed, he'd had both his boss _and _Louis reprimand him, Harvey had tossed him another one of his pro bono cases, which had gotten him dragged into a home invasion, and now he was sitting here, telling the cops anything he could remember about the men who'd held them captive.

A paramedic came over to examine his shoulder. The brown-haired woman tsked, reminding him of Donna for a brief moment, "You're very lucky this was just a graze, but it's pretty deep, so we'll have to get you to the hospital for stitches." she deduced, motioning him inside the ambulance.

Mike nodded, still a little shell-shocked. He should have expected to get shot.

Lucy, Hayleys ten year-old daughter, the older one of the two, had gotten a cheap pre-paid cell phone only recently, to make emergency calls to her mom if ever needed. Completely overwhelmed, both mother and daughter had forgotten this fact, and the fact that the men hadn't searched either of the small girls for anything, thinking they were too young to be of hindrance. Once they had realized it, though, they immediately dialed 9-1-1. After dispatch had sent cops to the house, the woman on the phone had spoken to them for a little longer, telling them to stay calm and that the police were on their way.

Unfortunately, it was at that time that the man standing outside the door chose to check in on them personally, and saw the phone in the girls hand, as she hung up and was in the motion of putting it back in her pocket. Grabbing Lucy by the hair, he took out his gun, which was as far as he got, when Mike barreled into the man, at least twice his size and eighty pounds heavier. Mike was more surprised than anyone someone with his small frame had been able to hold his own with the masked version of hulk for as long as he did. They wrestled for the gun, struggling for a good minute, before it went off, and Mike felt a sharp hot white pain lance up his arm and pin itself on his shoulder.

It was a damn good thing that at that point, two armed policemen barged in, guns raised, yelling "Drop the weapon scumbag!"

Mike had thought briefly it was just like in the movies, as he'd pressed a shaky hand against his bloody shoulder. Oh, and his suit was ruined. Like it hadn't been bad enough ruffled from the bad weather conditions that morning, now there was a gaping hole in the shoulder sleeve and blood stained the expensive fabric. He really didn't care what Harvey said. Five hundred dollar suits were totally expensive!

He looked at his watch, as his shoulder was bandaged properly, the doctor impressed swooning over his heroics-although he didn't think of it as such, seeing as how if the cops hadn't gotten there when they did, he would have been a goner, and-Mike shook his head, tried not to think about it. It was half past 12 o clock. Mike couldn't believe it. Hell had rained down on him all day and it hadn't even been a full day yet! It was only noon.

The doctor had written her number on his hand, with her name and a little heart next to it, before Mike left. He'd been far too distracted by this awful day to notice this or any of her previous flirting, however.

Mike took another taxi home, aware of all the money he was spending, and changed clothes, wondering if Donna knew how to get blood off suits...

Now that he had his cell phone back from the police, he realized he hadn't checked it at all, not until it started vibrating in his back pocket. He answered it without looking at the screen. "Hell-"

"Where the hell have you been? You would think a simple pro bono case like the one I handed you almost four _hours _ago would have been settled by now. Get your ass to the office in five minutes or you're fired." Without letting Mike get a word in egde wise, Harvey hung up on him.

Mike sighed profoundly. "Yes Harvey, no, I'm totally fine, I didn't get run over this morning, and no, Harvey, shot? Don't be silly." he was beginning to think maybe he was over reacting about the whole thing in general. Usually things like getting run over or shot alone would have people left and right trying to make you feel better and offering some kind of comfort. But, Mike thought, it's not like he'd gotten shot anywhere vital, the bullet had only grazed his arm, and it's not like any bones had been crushed when he'd gotten run over that morning either. All he was, really, was just extremely sore and tired and...hungry. Yes, definitely hungry.

His stomach growled loudly just then. He hadn't eaten since yesterday, during his short lunch break, wherein he'd devoured a chilli hotdog and gulped down a can of Pepsi. His phone vibrated again and he looked at it this time, it was a text from Harvey. He opened it and it read: Three minutes and counting.

Mike groaned. He'd eat later. He closed his cell, shoved it into his pocket, took his keys, and called for yet another taxi.

"You were due here twelve minutes ago, which is being generous since-did you change suits?" Harvey raised a brow. "Please don't tell me you went home to change suits in the middle of a work day."

"I thought I was a representation of you, and if I don't look-"

"Okay, genius, there's such a thing as having a spare suit somewhere in the office. All the other little associates were smart enough to realize this their second day, Mike." Harvey twirled a pen in his fingers and rolled his eyes for what had to be the umpteenth time that day.

Mike was absolutely miserable, and tired of being treated like this. Today was not his day. "Don't you even want to know why I was late this morning or why I had to go home and change suits?" he asked, desperately hoping someone in this place cared enough to question him on his disheveled appearance. It was times like these he really missed his grandmother.

"Did I ask?"

"No."

Harvey smirked, "So there's your answer, kiddo." then he got serious, "Now, do something to redeem yourself today, and get those briefs for the case done in an hour or clear out your desk for someone who can actually do their job properly."

Mike didn't bother responding, just walked out of the senior partners spacious office, past Donnas desk, and sunk into his desk. Today seriously could not get any worse. Mike tried not to be cliche' about the whole thing, but really, what else could _possibly _go wrong?

So, of course, the Lord almighty took this as a challenge.

Kyle Durant, Louis' protege associate, maneuvered his way over to Mikes desk. "Hey Ross, heard you got reamed out by both partners in one morning-twice. Kudos on that."

"Funny, I thought we weren't in high school anymore." Mike said dryly, rolling his eyes, so not in the mood to deal with this Harvard douche bag, as Harvey liked to call the better part of the associates.

"Ooh, someones' testy." Kyle continued to tease, "Somebody just a little down about not being Harveys favorite for the day?"

If punching people in the workplace weren't so damned frowned upon, Mike would have taken a swing at the cocky S.O.B right then and there. "Don't you have some work to do?"

"Not as much as you have to catch up on, apparently." Kyle snorted, and left his desk, deciding he'd bothered the associate enough for one day.

Mike sighed. How was it that being held hostage by men with loaded guns seemed just a little bit more pleasant right now than being in a room full of people who seemed damned intent on making his life miserable?

A half hour later Mike was done with the briefs, a personal best, and, his stomach growling more noticeably now, he went up to buy a bag of chips in the break room. He was starving. In the past half hour no one had talked down to him, yelled at him, mocked him, or tried to kill him, so as far as he was concerned, the day was starting to look up.

When the machine ate his dollar, Mike told himself, it's no big deal, things like that happened all the time. When Kyle came over to the machine next to him and conveniently happened to place an 'Out Of Order' sign on the machine, smirking very deliberately at him, Mike could have set him on fire, pushed him down a flight of stairs and beat him with a tire iron. "Really? Seriously? You took the sign off the machine and waited here for someone to lose a dollar to it, just for the hell of it? What do you even get paid for here?"

Kyle just kept right on with that smug smirk. "Not just anyone, Ross. You."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Mike narrowed his eyes at the man.

"Awe, Harveys puppy having a bad day?" he mocked.

Mike closed his eyes for a second, breathed. "Leave me alone."

Kyle rolled his eyes, "Look Ross, I have better things to do than stand around here talking to the likes of you all day, I just came by to tell you Louis wanted you to look through some papers up in storage and report back ASAP." the chronie informed him, leaving before Mike could say much else.

Food forgotten for the moment, the associate dragged himself upstairs, wincing as his leg once again nearly buckled beneath him. When he reached the floor of the storage room, he wondered what on earth Louis wanted with files from the 70s' and why he'd sent him and not one of his own-Mike stopped himself there, reminding himself out loud "Oh yeah, he frigging' hates you."

As soon as he stepped foot inside the very cramped storage space, boxes piled high as the eye could see, he noticed how dusty the room was. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust, and it there were windows in this Godforsaken room, where sunlight was let in, he bet you could've seen the dust particles floating in the air quite easily.

As he was entering, he felt rough hands push him into the room, and winced when it jarred his shoulder, and he stumbled and fell next to one of the boxes. "Have fun, Ross." a very familiar voice said, two others chuckling with it, as the door slammed shut, and he heard the finality of a click resound.

Try as he may, the door wouldn't budge open, and of course he'd left his cell phone on his desk. Of freaking course.

Mike held his injured shoulder and sat on the floor and wondered if this day could be made a holiday. Everybody Hate Mike Day, meh, he'd get more original with the name later, work out all the kinks. He got up and started knocking on the door, calling out for help, knowing it would be a good while before anyone came all the way up to storage. This floor of the building was usually deserted on most days.

A half hour later, he was still knocking on the door, now coughing in between every few pounds. He'd had chronic asthma as a child, and even through high school, but hadn't had an attack in years. But with all this dust slowly filling his lungs, and not a single window to crack open, he could tell he was on the verge of having one. His chest getting heavier, he struggled to breath. His arm was more sore than it had been, and he could feel blood soaking through the clothe of his jacket, and knew that that shove inside the storage room had torn his stitches.

Awesome. Two ruined suits in one day. Three life-threatening experiences so far-four if you counted the encounter with Louis that morning, and he did.

Mike loosened his tie, coughed, gasped for air.


	4. Chapter 4

**A.N: I started school today (which should mean I'm beat right now and miserable!) But I'm actually very happy :) If all goes well tomorrow I get a good job, get to skip my last two classes (electives), still earn my credits (to graduate high school) and get paaaaiiiiddd! (save up for colleg-oh who am I kidding, I'M GONNA BE ALL PIMP AND WAVE MA MONEY ROUND!) :D Wish me luck tomorrow! I'm so anxious and excited! :D WAH! ...If I don't get into the program though, I'm gonna' go ahead and let everyone kill Mike just to quell my frustration. -_- (Just kidding! ...Maybe.) Any who! Here's the next chapter :D Just cause I'm happy doesn't mean Mike gets any special treatment though ;D ENJOY GUYS! AND THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING AND REVIEWING AND JUST BEING AWESOME! I love all your reviews! And rambling is totally encouraged, all your imput is FANTASTIC (hint hint lol) Btw, I was wondering 'Who should find Mike?' and Mkitkat, I took your idea! So thank you! :D **

**4**

"Damn it." the kid had really been getting on his nerves today. He shows up late, twice, actually has the audacity to go home just to change clothes, and now it was past the deadline he'd given Mike for the papers, by at least twenty minutes.

Donna walked into his office, handed him a pile of papers, and said, in a very prissy tone, "Do not expect this to happen often. I was walking past Mikes desk and spotted them there, and knew you've been waiting on those a while."

"Where the hell's Mike that he couldn't bother to hand 'em in himself?" Okay, now this was getting ridiculous, one screw up after another. This wasn't the kids' day, for sure.

Donna took this as a cue to sit down and have a conversation. "I passed by there almost an hour ago, he wasn't at his desk then either. Didn't you notice something off about the way he's been walking all day?"

Harvey raised a brow at the inquiry. "Apparently you have?" he noted.

Donna nodded. "He was walking with a limp. But only a couple of times, which is why I thought maybe my mind was playing tricks on me." she furrowed her brows. "Why was he late this morning anyway?"

Harvey shrugged. "Beats me. I don't care so long as he shows up." Donna stood up and swatted Harveys hand. He retracted and frowned. "What was that for?"

"For not being a good Boss! When your employee-your _only _employee, let me remind you-is late, you ask him why!"

"Donna, if I heard 'I overslept' one more time I was going to strangle Mike." he defended himself.

She rolled her eyes at him. "When I left the office yesterday, Mike told me he was dead set on coming in early today-all that puppy enthusiasm never once leaving his face. So I really doubt he 'overslept'. Also, did you not notice that contraption he rides to work on every morning isn't parked outside the building?"

"Are you playing detective?" Harvey arched a brow. "Look, Donna, I am not the kids' babysitter; I'm his superior, simple as that. I don't care to hear excuses. In fact, I don't care, period."

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that." Donna sashayed out of his office, throwing him one of those 'You so care, just admit it' looks once she'd reached her desk, secretly worried about the only associate in this firm she was fond of. The kid grew on people.

Mike wheezed, his chest piling up with pressure, his inflamed airway making it harder and harder to breath. He knocked against the door, weaker now, his fists shaking. He felt awful. He really just wanted to sit down and cry, but knew if he started now, it would only make his asthma worse.

"Hey, anybody in here?" someone asked, Mike heard keys jingling, and would have breathed a sigh of relief if he could.

All he could do though, was to continue knocking against the door, barely eliciting a noise at this point.

When the door opened, an elderly janitor was standing outside, eyes widened when he saw the pale associate with blue tinged lips, sat on the dirty floor. He bent down and pulled him out of the room, patting his cheek, asked what was wrong, but Mike could only stare at his dazedly, and hold his chest, looking like a fish out of water.

Whether fate, miracle, or God apologizing for the day from hell, the janitor searched his pockets and after a few seconds of fumbling, took out an inhaler. He uncapped it quickly and carefully set it between Mikes lips, pumping medicine into his system. Mike could have cared less if this wasn't his inhaler, or how unsanitary it was, just craved the air that suddenly began filling his lungs shortly after a couple of pumps.

"I don't care how cut throat lawyers are, if this was a form of hazing for 'em, I say it went too damn far." he later told Mike, when he could breath properly again, and wasn't leaning on the older man to stay up.

Mike was still really light headed, and more sore than he'd been that morning now. "Well, this hasn't exactly been my day." he told the janitor, Henry, looking up at him gratefully. "But thank you so much, I mean, if you hadn't been here-"

"Hey, it's janitors' code: Save at least one person a week. Gotta' meet the quota." Henry jested, patting the kids back gently. Mike reminded him of his own son. The only reason he had the pump with him was that his grandson had asthma, and often exerted himself when he came over to play.

Mike smiled up at him. "Well, if it means anything, you're like, the only nice person I've crossed paths with all day."

"I imagine so, with the kind of people you work with." Henry replied, not surprised. He helped the young man stand, alarmed when he swayed and almost fell. "You want me to call an ambulance? My grandson had a real bad attack one day, and we took him straight to the hospital, even after we gave him the inhaler. Just for precautions' sake."

Mike shook his head, "Thanks, but I'll be fine. Just a little off-balance."

Sitting down on his desk, Mike didn't feel any better. His arm still hurt, but thankfully the dark suit helped cover the blood stain, and the entire left side of his body felt like one big bruise, his leg protesting every time he moved.

Rachael walked over to his desk, "Hey you," she leaned over his computer, smiling. "Haven't seen you all day. Busy day?"

Mike looked up, "What time is it?" he asked abruptly, looking over his desk for the papers he'd finished what seemed like forever ago, for Harvey.

Rachael looked at her watch. "Five minutes 'till two."

"Oh my God, PM?" Mike couldn't believe this. It was still damn early, and the day still wore on, and he just wanted to go home and sleep for 'till this horrible day was over! With his luck, though, the ceiling in his apartment would probably cave in and crush him to death.

Rachael frowned. "Yes, PM." she replied. "Long day?"

"Like you wouldn't believe." he sighed. At this point, he really did doubt anyone would believe him if he told them about this no-good day. His grandmother would, but he'd never tell her about any of this; she'd go into cardiac arrest just thinking about it. "On my way to work this morning I got-"

"Yelled at by Harvey for coming in so late? Yeah, I heard." she interrupted. "Listen, I gotta' run, just wanted to say hi, I'll see you later, maybe?" with that, she walked off.

Leaving him mid-sentence, mouth agape. "Rammed by a car..." he sighed, as he finished, sans an attentive audience. "Shit." he muttered, once he realized he couldn't find the papers he'd worked on for Harvey. And he was at least a half hour late on the deadline. Again. He rummaged through his desk, under his desk, in his cabinets. He'd left them right there! If one of the other drones had taken it just to screw with him, he was going to go ballistic. Hadn't they done enough? Jesus.

He felt sick suddenly, nausea making itself known. He belatedly realized what it was. He was hungry; starving, in fact. Mike hadn't eaten since yesterday. Forgetting the papers briefly, he stood and decided to leave the office to get something to fill his empty stomach.

"Mike, Harveys looking for you." Donna motioned toward the office, and continued on her way, glancing back at him with concern, as she watched him slowly make him way to Harveys grandiose office.

As soon as Mike stumbled in, Harvey made a show of tidying the papers on his desk, and Mike realized with evident relief someone had handed them to his boss. "Harvey, about those papers-"

"I don't want to hear anymore excuses, Mike, I'm tired of-"

Mike gaped. "Excuses? I haven't even been given the chance to _give _you an excuse!"

"This isn't school, in case you've forgotten, this is work, where even if you had a fantastic excuse, it really wouldn't fly. I get a college drop-out might not understand this concept, though." Harvey had hit low on that last blow.

Mike would've pointed out that he'd been kicked out, not dropped out, but neither of those were something to gloat about. So he stayed shut for a minute. The room started tilting sideways, then, everything kind of becoming blurry around the edges. He heard Harvey continue to speak, but the words were lost to the blood rushing to his ears. He really just wanted to go home and end this day completely.

**A.N. I'm probably gonna' whump our boy one last time (*coughs* maybe a wittle bit tiny bit more?) before some one finds out! The moment when the truth is revealed has to be epic, so I'm trying to think of a way where everyone finds out (especially Harvey) that makes them all super shocked beyond belief and guilty and stuff, without Mike having to come right out and say it. :o Wish me luck. *thinks* Also, don't forget to review! :o Even if its "nice story"-reviews make my day :D 3 **


	5. Chapter 5

**A.N. OH MY GOD, GUYS! I recorded the finale for Suits and did NOT expect it to be so AWESOME (in hindsight, I should have!) It was! Ugh! I want MOAR! I can't wait 'till next SUMMER! Dx I'm hopelessly depressed 'till then and dependent on writing and reading Suits fics to get my weekly fix! Any who! I loved all your suggestions (they were all WONDERFUL and gave me loads to think about), reviews (I'm in love with them **_**and **_**you guys!), adding this story to your favorites (:D 3 that's so sweet it gave me cavities), story alerts(!), etc. Seriously means a lot. :) Enjoy! I hope you guys like the direction in which I took this chapter in? I worked a while on this, hoping to get it just right, so I'm hoping I didn't disappoint. :) **

**5.**

"Are you even listening to me?" Harvey glared at his associate. "Just get out of my office, I've had enough of you today. I still haven't received any confirmation on that God damned pro bono case, go work on that." he ordered, not bothering to look up, and therefore, missing the way Mike practically stumbled out of his office, not quite so steady on his feet as he'd like.

Donna noted this though, and stopped him as he rounded her desk. "Mike, honey, are you okay?" The boy seriously had a way of bringing out her maternal instincts.

Mike could have kissed her. "No." he replied frankly, wiping one hand across his face in exasperation, exhaustion radiating off his every movement. He leaned against her desk, thankful it was there to keep him up, as his balance was being severely compromised at the moment, and sighed. "It's been the day from hell, Donna." he explained anxiously. "I mean, I've complained about shit days before, but this one takes the cake-no, no, the entire _bakery _and the block it's placed on!" and even that, he thought, was an understatement. "I mean," he sighed deeply again, "It's barely three in the afternoon, I still have to get to court, win the case, it's not even _my _case, I can't remember the last time I ate, I'm sooo friggin' tired, I don't think I've ever been so dead on my feet, and Jesus Christ, you won't believe what happened when I went to the womans' house this morning! I'm knocking on her door and all of a sudden I feel a-"

"If you two are done gossiping like school girls, you can maybe get back to doing some actual work now. You've got thirty minutes to be in court, and you damn well better not come back a failure, Ross, I think you've done enough of that today, don't you?" Harvey stood there, at his doorway, glaring at Mike, until with a resigned huff, he walked to the bullpen, in search of his bag to get his things for court.

Donna set her own death glare at Harvey. "The poor thing was spilling his heart out Harvey! He's having a crap day and you're not making it any easier."

Harvey rolled his eyes. "Yeah well, I'd be having a crap day too if I kept screwing up in every direction I turned." with this, he went back into his office, behind glass walls, and wondered what the hell was wrong with the kid today.

It hadn't escaped Mikes notice that Harvey had just called him Ross. He couldn't recall Harvey ever calling him by his sir name, only the other associates and Louis called him by that name, and it was usually in way of mocking or reprimanding. He looked at his watch; 2:36, less than a half hour to gather his notes and represent the woman he'd been taken hostage with just a few hours ago, in court. Awesome.

"Look who finally came out of the closet." Kyle sneered, as he passed his desk, not giving him a chance to respond, not that he had time to waste pointing out that a) it was a storage room, not a closet-even if it was the size of one-so that joke had zero foundation, and b) Fuc-Mike paused his train of thought, got his bag, tucked his phone into his back pocket, and followed the associate, catching up to him, ignoring the pain in his leg-they were headed the same direction anyway, might as well.

He grasped Kyles shoulder and turned him around. "First off, it was a storage room, you patronizing tool, and second," he lowered his voice, "Watch yourself, Durant, I don't play games, I was not raised with a golden spoon in my mouth, I am not afraid to get my hands dirty, and you can damn well take that as a threat." the menace his voice held was not lost on the associate, who's expression resembled that of a deer in headlights for a moment. Mike smiled pleasantly, patted him on the shoulder, not missing Kyles flinch, and shoved him out of the way as he took the elevator downstairs.

That's it. He was done dealing with this abomination of a day. He was done taking shit from people today. He was done getting stepped on. He was done being ignored. Justified anger suddenly pumped through his veins, the only thing keeping him on his feet was the adrenaline rush coursing through him. Mike was going to go into that court house in twenty minutes and wipe the floor with his opponent.

"Holy shit, did you hear about Harvey Specters associate in court today? He managed to get this huge settlement for this woman who was suing her former employer for sexual harassment."

"Really?"

"Yeah, and get this, the company she sued had an entire entourage of high paid, high profile lawyers and he completely just destroyed them!"

"Whoa," the other associate expressed his awe. "Just what you'd expect from someone working under the best closer in the city."

"You bet."

Harvey heard the two associates having this conversation by the water cooler, thinking the whole scenario was quite cliche', but impressed none the less. His little puppy had beat a room full of lawyers for a huge company? Maybe he'd under estimated him after all. The way he'd clearly under estimated this pro bono case. No wonder Jessica had wanted him in specific to work on it, and not one of the lowly associates.

"Colour me pleasantly surprised." speak of the devil, Jessica stood behind the senior partner, smirking widely. "I thought I'd given _you _that pro bono Harvey; but I suppose I'll be looking to Mr. Ross with a lot more respect after today." with that off-hand comment, she continued to walk past the break room.

Harvey blinked. He wondered briefly where the kid was, anyway. He wanted to make amends for giving him so much shit. _Not that he didn't deserve it_, he thought in his head, _kid was everywhere today_. He just didn't want it to be awkward between the two for longer than necessary. Their relationship was based on a mixture of Harvey being his mentor and boss, and their banter, which he liked to think of as friendship-you didn't just give a fist-bump to anyone, as far as he knew. He'd never been the fist-bumping type...

So while he still wanted to maintain that mentor/student status, he realized he also wanted to build on this thing he called a friendship with Mike. So he decided to go get him at the bullpen, where all the other associates resided. Upon his arrival, though, Harvey noted that Mike wasn't at his desk, nor was that insipid bag he always carried around with him there, either. He made a memo to himself to ask the kid why he didn't just get a damn briefcase, would certainly make others think he was a little more professional, a little less college undergraduate.

"Donna, have you seen Mike?" Harvey deduced that since news of his victory had already gotten to the associates at Pearson Hardman, Mike should have been there already. It was nearly five in the afternoon, two hours after he'd left the building.

Donna didn't bother looking up from her computer, "Nope." she replied shortly, still mad at him for interrupting her conversation with Mike earlier that day.

Harvey rolled her eyes, "Donna, if I hadn't broken up the little gossip ring you two were creating, he never would have made it to court in time."

"It wasn't a gossip ring, Harvey, don't you patronize me." she threatened, narrowing her eyes at him. "I seriously think the pup needed to unload some of the burden he's been carrying all day. Did you not see him? Mike looked like he was about to fall over." she pointed out.

Across town, elated at having won the case, Mike left the court house with the intention of grabbing a taxi, going to Pearson Hardman and gloating about his huge win to Harvey, hoping to gain some of the respect he'd slowly been losing all morning. When he got out of the court house, though, the clouds opened up and rain starting pounding him mercilessly. But Mike didn't care. He was far too over joyed to care about a little (okay, a lot of) rain, or even acknowledge his still torn stitches, or his very sore leg, or the fact that he hadn't eaten a single thing in almost twenty four hours, and he decided to blame his current win right now for his light-headedness.

The hope of hailing down any taxi was quickly diminished when the road back to Pearson Hardman was blocked off because of some accident a few blocks away. The traffic was tremendous, and the raining had turned into a full blown out storm, thunder and lightening and strong winds-the whole shebang.

_Okay_, Mike thought, _a little (okay, a huge) thunder storm is not going to bring me down. I am Harveys' Robert Duval,_ He told himself, shaking his head_, so not Fredo..._

So he held his now totally soaked bag to his completely soaked chest, and started his very long walk back to Pearson Hardman.

Harvey stared outside his window, frowned. It was raining an awful lot. Mike and his damn bike... What kind of lawyer rode a bicycle to work and back? It was dangerous to ride one of those things in New York city, much less in weather this bad. He paced his office, not because he was worried about Mike, no, just, for the sake of pacing.

Donna peeked her head into his office, "Harvey, it's half past six, I've tried his cell a million times, I'm worried." she admitted, forgetting she was angry at him.

Harvey bit his bottom lip. "I'm sure he's on his way."

"But he didn't come on his bike this morning and what if he couldn't catch a taxi or something? I went to the break room a few minutes ago and they say this freak storm might cause a lot damage Harvey, it came out of no where and people are advised to stay inside due to flooding issues, Harvey, _flooding_! In uptown New York! That's where we are, in case you have forgotten; more importantly, that's where the court house is located and Mike's not back yet and I'm not happy about it." she rambled on, fretting.

A knock interrupted what ever Harvey had been about to say, and Jessica lead in a middle aged woman, who looked very nervous, two young girls and toddler at her side. "Harvey, this is Mrs. Othello and her daughters." she introduced very politically.

Harvey raised a brow; the woman didn't look like a typical client, but he politely shook her hand none the less, nodded for her to go on. Jessica looked very grave. "Harvey, she came to my office a few minutes ago and gave me something belonging to your associate," she handed him a business card, "She then described who it was that this belonged to, and this lead us here."

His eyes widened. "Why do you have this?" he wondered out loud, taking the card and tucking it into his front pocket for safe keeping, directing his question to the woman.

"My name is Nadine Othello, this morning I was running late, trying to get the girls to the academy, my baby to daycare, and make it in time for a meeting, I work with a pharmaceutical company." she explained, fidgeting beneath Harveys demanding stare. "And I was speeding and I saw the light turn yellow, and then it turned red, but I decided 'What the hell, who really cares if I run one red light?'"

Harvey felt a cold dread all of a sudden. _Oh no_.

She continued, looking severely guilty. "I swear to God I did not see that bicycle, I was in such a rush and it was so stupid, I could have killed us all," Nadine held her daughters close to her. "I hit the breaks, but it was too late by then, I heard the most sickening noise, and when I ran out of my car, I saw him pinned underneath the minivan, lying there, not moving." she was still clearly traumatized by the entire event.

"I couldn't believe it. I was so scared, I thought he was dead, then he started moving. It took him a minute, but he got up and dragged himself the rest of the way from under the car and I could see he was hurt, but I was too shocked to react, I wanted to call an ambulance or something, but he was gone by the time I even blinked. He got on his bike, God knows how that thing survived at all, spouting something about being late and a few minutes later, I realized he'd dropped this small white business card, probably when I hit him and I Googled this place...and here I am. I needed to see that he'd gotten proper medical care and that he was alright and I wanted to apologize for being so stupid. I never should have ran that red light."

Harvey stood there, absolutely shocked beyond intelligible words.

Donna took a seat on a cushioned chair on the opposite side of Harveys desk, astounded. Their puppy was run over this morning...and neither of them had been the wiser. "Oh my God." she muttered, head in her hands, elbows on her knees. The poor thing had walked in all beat up and she'd chastised him, not even bothering to ask why he was in such a state.

Before they could fully grasp the news, Louis entered the office, unannounced, of course, accompanied by a couple and their two daughters. "They're here asking for Ross, but I can't for the life of me find him, and that's not exactly in my job description anyway. Mr. Elk and Mrs. Walter, this is Harvey Specter, Michael Ross' superior." He stayed at the door with Jessica, wondering why she was here, as well, and why Donna and Harvey looked like they'd been punched in the guts repeatedly. _This outghta' be good_, he thought, trying to hide a smirk.

Mrs. Walters...Harvey was too wound up to recall her name from the pro bono case he'd skimmed over several hours ago that morning, except that it sounded vaguely familiar.

It clicked in his head when she said, "I'm Hayley Walters, Michael Ross represented me in court this afternoon, and I just, I wanted to thank him so much for everything he's done for me and my family, if he wasn't for him, I don't even dare thinking of what would have happened to us."

Harvey frowned. "What are you talking about?" this sounded like much more than a simple thank you for a pro bono case...then again, it had something to do with sexual harassment, so maybe he was just over reacting.

Hayley's ex-husband now-Harvey remembered reading that morning-stepped in, putting an arm around his ex-wife and hugging his daughters tight. "I could have lost them this morning." Mr. Elk explained. "Your associate saved my daughter, and I can't tell you how grateful I am, I don't know what I would have done..." he couldn't finish the sentence, shaking his head.

Alright, now he was really curious. "It was a pro bono case...what are you two going on about?"

Donna looked up intently, wondering the same thing, Jessica, Louis, Nadine, and her children now all ears as well, as Hayley Walters commenced her story. "Mike called me on the phone, he told me he was coming over in a few to discuss the details of my case, for court later that afternoon, and I made tea and waited with my two daughters, Lucy," she gestured toward the oldest one, and then pointed out the smallest, who looked to be about three or four, and said, "Jaylene-Lucy stayed home from school today because she was still recovering from the flu, and since I lost my job recently, I didn't mind staying home with my girls." she took a shaky breath and continued.

"There was a knock at the door, and I got up to answer it, thinking it was Mike, when a bunch of men stormed into my house, they dragged me and my daughters upstairs and locked us in a room. They were all wearing masks and they had guns and we were terrified, so we just stayed quite, hoping they'd get all the valuables and just leave! That's when the door opened and two men shoved your associate into the room with us-"

The smallest of the two girls smiled and interrupted her mother. "He was pretty and played house with us so we wouldn't be scared." she said very innocently, twirling her dress in her hand.

Hayley smiled too, "He really was very good with us, kept my girls from panicking, like I was." she ruffled her tiny childs' head and looked back up at the senior partner, her face grave now. "Then it all happened so quickly. We found a cellphone I'd completely forgotten I'd given Lucy a week ago for school, and we called the police, they were on their way, and just as we hung up and my baby girl was putting her phone back into her pocket, one of the men came in. He was at least twice your size," she described to Harvey, "And he had a gun, and he pointed it at my little girl," she teared up, her ex-husband hugging her close, their daughters in between the couple.

"I froze, I was absolutely terrified and Mike just tackled this armed giant and took him down, they fought for the gun, struggled on the carpet, their were sirens outside, we were all screaming, and then the gun went off and I held my breath, I prayed to God, oh please not him, don't let it be him. A second later the police ran in, guns pointed at the menaces' head, and I ran to Mike, see that he was okay, and realized he had been the one to get shot after all, and I saw all the blood, and I fainted, and...I was," she shook her head, "I was a mess. I saw him earlier today, in court, and I was so relieved, but he looked so awful, I just had to come here and give all my thanks, I had to make sure he was alright. I can't ever repay him for all he's done for us." she wiped her tears.

Harvey was stunned. No, that was an understatement. He was flabbergasted, shocked, amazed, horrified. Harvey felt like someone had just shot _him _in his bad knee, run _him _over with a giant truck, and slammed his head against a door. He felt sick and was disgusted with himself.

He couldn't find words in his big Harvard graduate dictionary to describe the situation properly.

As if his office weren't crowded enough, an older-looking man-Henry the janitor, who Harvey had known almost as long as he'd worked in this building, and considered a good friend, marched into the office, looking quite angry, dragging Kyle by the collar like a dog.

"What the hell! Stop pulling at me, you'll tear my suit! You couldn't afford this suit with a year of your salary, old man!" Kyle yelled, shoving away from the janitor.

"Somebody fire this pretentious-" Henry stopped himself from cursing when he realized there were children in the room, and glared at the associate. "This _man_, if you can call him that."

Louis, still reeling back from Hayley's story, shook his head, "What are you talking about? Durant is one of my finest associates."

"Mr. Durant over here decided it'd be dang funny to lock Mike in a dusty, unfiltered storage room, the size of a closet, for nearly an hour and a half without bothering to even check up on the poor kid. When I came across the room, it was a good thing I did, otherwise he wouldn't have come out alive. He was having an asthma attack in that cluttered room, begging for help! He couldn't breathe; could've died all 'cause of a stupid prank this so-called _adult _tried to pull on him." Henry had passed by the break room and heard Kyle gloating to two other associates about getting one over on Mike, and Henry would be damned if he let the snobbish kid get away with endangering a life so easily.

"You _what_?" Louis turned to his associate, fury in his face evident. He expected better from his underlings, and that he'd taken time out of a workday to pull something so stupid was beyond his comprehension.

Jessica Pearson glared at Kyle, her face livid with anger, after hearing what that poor boy had been through all day. She was about to tell him to step into her office with a steely tone, when the person on everyones' mind stumbled into Harveys office. Mike was soaked to the bone, pale, teeth chattering, lips blue, and Jessica realized he was so out of it the young associate had yet to notice how packed Harveys office was, instead walking up to Harvey, grinning wildly.

"You won't believe what happened, I won that pro bono case for you, I mean, I know it doesn't go on my record or earn the firm any money or anything, but it's just, after disappointing you all day I've been looking forward to..." Mike paused, and Jessica thought maybe he'd finally noticed all the people in the room, but that wasn't it at all.

He shook his head, "I..." Mike looked confused for a moment before his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fell forward, completely unconscious.

"Mike!"

**A.N. Review? :o I worked really hard on this one, so it would totally make my day. :) Thanks for reading so far! **


	6. Chapter 6

**A.N. Miserable. Nothing's going right today. I think God's punishing me for hurting Mike so damn much. :/ Hopefully you folks enjoy this. Thank you all SO MUCH for all the incredible reviews! You guys are amazing, they seriously encourage me to keep writing, it's really nice when you guys take time to click on the review button and write such awesome things down for me to see later, it's motivational for me and I just really do appreciate it a lot. So thank you. Sorry for my babbling. **

**6.**

The rumor mill at Pearson Hardman worked quickly, and within minutes of Mike having passed out in Harveys packed office, people were already coming up with wild stories-which weren't actually too far off the mark. Things like "Did you hear Mike won a case while being held hostage by armed men in court with his client?" and "Oh God, did you know about that poor associate who got hit by a semi a couple of hours ago? Harvey still made him come into work!" were being said around the office.

Being stuck in the building because of the horrible storm, turned hurricane in just a few short hours, was only proof that Mikes' awful day had not yet ended.

"He needs medical attention _now_!" Harvey yelled into the phone for about the millionth time since he'd called dispatch, and they'd told him that due to the severity of the abrupt hurricane, no ambulance was on call at the moment. "You've got to be shitting me!" Angry, he slammed his phone down and went back over to his luxurious vinyl couch, where an unconscious Mike lay, unresponsive for the last thirteen minutes since he'd gotten into the crowded office and passed out cold on the floor, at Harveys feet.

Harvey felt like shit. No, he felt more despicable than the squirming bug stuck in a used, chewed up piece of gum, accidentally attached to the sole of a hobos' ragged, worn out shoe. Worse than that, even.

Donna rushed over in her Gucci triple strap platforms, and got on her knees in front of the couch, and started wiping Mikes wet face and hair down with a small white towel she'd found in a storage closet. "God Harvey." was all she needed to utter to make him feel all the more guilty.

"I yelled at him all day long, practically called him useless at one point, I was so aggravated, didn't even give the kid a chance to say anything in his defense." Harvey shoved his head into the palms of his hands as he sat on the table in front of the couch.

"I can't believe he got hit by a _car_." Donna was still in complete awe over all she'd learned in the last half hour and couldn't be bothered to deal with Harveys' pity party.

Louis walked into the senior partners office holding a pair of sweats he'd found from some advertising event the firm had held for Pearson Hardman several months ago. He wasn't exactly nice to Harveys associate-then again, he often wasn't nice to much anybody-but to think that on top of such a terrible day he'd reprimanded Mike in his office for what was probably a full half hour after he'd apparently gotten hit by a minivan? He felt more guilt about this than he had for supposedly causing that big-shots' death in the office. "I got some clothes for him to change in; he's soaked to the bone, it can't really be good for him...considering everything else he's been through." Louis set the clothes down on the table next to Harvey.

Donna found it in her to smile at the balding man. "Thanks Louis."

Louis shrugged as if it weren't of any real interest to him, but couldn't help but stare back at the prone figure on the couch with what looked to be concern-if one squinted hard enough, that is. "I'm off to gather the associates; they're all panicking about the hurricane." Louis excused himself from the see-through glass walled office to go explain to the nervous bustling associates under his wing why it was vital they stayed in doors and away from windows until further notice.

Harvey went to pull the curtains on his office, and started unfolding the sweats. "Take off his shoes, I'll start with his shirt."

Donna nodded, knowing he would catch hypothermia if he stayed in these wet clothes for long and set on untying his ruined dress shoes.

Harvey wondered briefly where his jacket was, as he undid the buttons to his white undershirt and was alarmed when even as he stripped Mike of his shirt, which meant a lot of moving about in his part, the kid didn't even rouse.

"Oh God, there it is." Donna had slipped off his shoes just in time to look to see if Harvey was done, when she spotted the very bloody bandage wrapped across his upper arm and shoulder. "He was _shot _Harvey." she was barely able to keep the quiver from her tone, tears welling in her eyes as the tips of her fingers very softly brushed over Mikes' injured arm.

Harvey paused trying to pull the dry Pearson Hardman logo shirt over his associates head and just stared at the wound. Stared at Mikes bruised torso in shame. "Shit." the guilt was overwhelming, and he rushed to put the shirt on him completely, in the process jarring his shoulder and making Mike whimper in pain and crouch into himself. "Shit, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Harvey apologized profusely, and Donna had a feeling he was apologizing for much more than that alone.

"Honey, wake up." Donna hovered over the half-conscious body.

Mikes' eyes peered up at her and Harveys worried faces, though they were blurred some. "Wha' happened?"

Harvey had never been so happy to hear Mikes' voice in his entire life. Donna held his hand in hers and kissed his palm. "Oh honey," was all she could say, before she actually burst into tears and laid her head on his chest.

Mike was so shocked he couldn't react fast enough. His head was still full of cotton, his arm ached and one whole side of his body was just a humongous bruise molted into ugly colors. "Wha's goin' on?" he looked to Harvey for answers, his good arm rubbing up and down the small of Donnas' back in an attempt to comfort the woman-who as far as he knew, had always been a rock.

Harvey got down on his knees and started running his fingers through Mikes now semi-dry hair in what he hoped was a soothing motion. "Mike...I..." he couldn't find words suitable to this situation, and wanted to do something similar to Donna, but knew two crying adults on his chest would only freak Mike out.

Mikes' head was pounding furiously now, on top of everything, and only made the vagueness of everything more obscure to him. Why was Donna crying? Why was Harvey on his knees running his fingers through his hair? Why was he on Harveys couch? Why was the room tilting? "I..." he paused. He'd had something to tell the older man, he was sure of it. He'd been limping back to Pearson, the rain had been harsh and unforgiving-much like this day, and the wind had almost blown his 'delicate' frame away several times. "Won the case..." he finally remembered, the words coming out in an almost-whisper, his throat sore. "Didn't come back...failure." he mumbled, looking to Harvey for approval, his eyes bright with what would later be confirmed as a fever.

The words were a knock-out fist to the gut for Harvey. He remembered telling Mike he'd "done enough of that" for the day, when in fact, he'd done the exact opposite, even as the day conspired against him to a point where a regular person would have thrown in the towel, gone home, and slept until the next sunrise.

"You're not a failure Mike, you never were. I didn't think when I was saying those awful things, I..." Harvey stumbled with the words he wanted to say, that should have come so easily, but were not. "Mike...Jesus, Mike, you got shot today! You got hit by a car on your bike this morning! You were locked in a fucking claustrophobic file room as part of some sick joke and nearly died of an asthma attack! You nearly died Mike, thrice!"

Donna was wiping the mascara from her cheeks and holding onto the associate for dear life. "You outran a hurricane." she sniffled, trying to contribute to the conversation, her voice wavering. "You dealt with two douche bag bosses, ignorant co-workers, me, and you kicked ass in court against a bunch of big-shots. Mike, you're amazing." Donna had never been one to doll out praise, but if anyone deserved it after the trials they'd been through, it was Michael James Ross, for sure. "Honey, if scops still roamed in the modern world today they'd be singing epic tales of you, up there with the greats, like Beowulf." she swiped more oncoming tears from her eyes.

Harvey continued to run his hands through Mikes hair without thought now, guilt and shame still evident and obvious on his face. "You saved a little girls' life and then won her mothers' sexual harassment case. Donna's right, Mike." he wiped at his eyes with his sleeve. He'd caught something in his eye, that's all it was, he swore to himself. "Damn it Mike, I..." again he came up short with words. What was he going to say? 'I'm sorry for being an inconsiderate asshole all day while you were gunned down, roadkill, and nearly suffocated to death?'

It didn't seem like nearly enough to repent, nor would it be.

Mike was in a daze, wasn't following much of what the pair was saying, except that the two were kneeling in front of him with twin looks of despair and...something about a hurricane? A hurricane. Here, in Manhattan. Shit.

Using the last of his remaining strength, Mike leapt up from the couch and was almost halfway out the office when he felt a tug at his new shirt sleeve. "Mike, what's wrong?" Harvey noted the look of alarm on his face.

"My Grandma Harvey, her center's in the low areas. It could get flooded and I don't..." a wave of sudden dizziness struck the young associate and and he stumbled forward, into Harveys arms.

Harvey dragged the semi-struggling man back to the couch and sat him down. "Mike, relax, I'll have someone-"

Donna got up abruptly, announcing, "I'll call the Care Center right now!" she ran off to her desk just outside the office, in a hurry to quell Mikes' angst and dire concern.

"Harvey...I don't feel so good." he moaned miserably-his only warning before vomiting all over the man's three piece suit and his expensive rug, imported from Europe.


	7. Chapter 7

**A.N. I finally got a beta :D And she's awesome! Seriously. :) Fixes all my horrible grammar and spelling errors and is just fantastic! Alright, here it is! Chapter Seven! A little shorter than I'd hoped but I promise the next one to be longer! :) I absolutely adore all of you for reviewing and just simply reading my fic! It means a lot. ENJOY!  
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**7.**

The next time Mike awoke it was dark and he was no longer on Harvey's couch waiting to get fired after vomiting all over Harvey's expensive suit, leather shoes and the European rug in his office.

"I think he's coming to." He was still groggy, but he was pretty sure that whisper was Donnas' voice.

Then it was Harvey whispering, "Mike?" whilst nudging him lightly.

Mike moaned. He didn't want to be fully awake. He liked that feeling between being half-asleep and only semi-aware of reality. Not to mention whatever he was propped up against was very comfortable and warm. "Why're we whispering?" he asked in a low voice, as well, sinking further into the cushiony feeling beneath him.

Harvey opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, and paused. "Why _are _we whispering?"

Donna shrugged. "I don't know, I figured it suited the current mood."

"The current mood _sucks_." Louis piped in grouchily, not sounding very lawyerly at all, and this time Mike forced himself to open his eyes. Why did all the voices sound so close together?

He was surprised, to say the least, to see that Jessica, Louis, Donna, Rachael and Harvey were all sat beneath a large hollow desk, and that the only reason he couldn't see Harvey's' face too well was that he was laying on the senior partners chest. His ears turned red instantly, but he was too weak to struggle out of the older man's grasp, and Harvey wasn't mentioning anything about it, so Mike stayed where he was and wondered out loud. "Why are we under this table?"

"The storm's gotten worse in the last hour. Harvey's window cracked and three of the larger windows in the third floor shattered completely. It's not safe to go outside so the building's on lock down mode, but it's not safe to be near glass either-the foundation of this building, practically-" Donna rolled her eyes at that. "So all workers were ordered to hide under desks in rooms where there are no windows-that's when the power went out. And lo' and behold, here we are." she surmised.

Mike had been too out of it the last time he'd been conscious to realize there was even a storm-now he realized the gravity of their situation. "Time is it?" he asked, only because he'd been checking his watch all day, hoping this day would soon be over and done with.

Luck, however, was not on his side. "Umm," Donna checked her wrist watch. "Almost 9pm."

Mike covered his face with his good arm, so sick of this day, until he remembered something important, "My grandmother? Did you get a hold of her before the lines went dead?"

Donna smiled, "She's alright, Mike; they moved everyone out of the center to a safe location as soon as they heard on the news how bad it was getting." She was glad to hand out some good news to the kid today, considering how crummy everything else had turned out.

The relief on Mike's face was palpable. "That's good."

Mrs. Pearson cut in, "How do you feel? We heard what you went through today." She was still trying to wrap all the awful things that had occurred to Harvey's associate around her head, quite frankly.

Mike started, almost forgetting his Boss' boss was under the table with them in the dark-as if the whole scenario didn't sound completely juvenile. "Better." He replied, before he felt Harvey tense under him.

"_'Better'_?"he repeated incredulously. "Mike, you nearly _died _today. _Thrice; n_o, correction. _Four times_." he emphasized. "Who in their right mind decides to walk around in a storm that fucking bad? Who decides to come into work at all after getting hit by a car, Mike? You get kidnapped and fucking _shot _and you waltz in here like it's no big deal? Like it's just a really bad day? It's not _just _a bad day, Mike. A bad day is stubbing your toe in the morning and missing a meeting! What happened to you today was life-threatening! Do you not get that? You were suffocating in a file room! What if Henry hadn't found you in time? Jesus Christ Michael, why in the hell didn't you tell anyone? I saw you at least three different times today and you couldn't even bother to _tell _me-".

Mike used what strength he had to move away from Harvey and although he missed the warmth and comfort, he did not regret the action. "I _did _try to tell you! I tried to tell Donna, too and you wouldn't let me do that either! You said you didn't want to hear any of my _'excuses'. _Hell, you barely gave me a chance to speak! And what does it matter to you anyway? You only care about your damn self, so drop the lecture!" Mike was fed up with being stepped on and shoved and mistreated all day. He wasn't going to deal with Harvey yelling at him for what had to be the third time today on top of it all.

The speech left everyone speechless.

Rachael suddenly recalled running out on him at the bullpen earlier, thinking he'd complain about Harvey's tyranny, or Louis' mean-spiritedness. Guilt spread through her like the plague. How could she not have noticed his disheveled appearance then? The pained look on his face seemed very obvious now.

Louis had a new found respect for Harvey's pup. Anyone who stood in the middle of his office for a half hour getting reamed out by him after having been hit by a car garnered his respect, for sure.

Donna offered her lap to the tired looking associate with ease. Mike gratefully accepted, and quietly shuffled himself into a small enough ball that even when laying down, head and shoulder resting on the redheads soft lap, he wasn't taking up much room beneath the round desk.

Harvey couldn't believe he'd just blown up at Mike. Missed the warmth of Mike's frail body against his. Goddammit.


	8. Chapter 8

**8.**

_Two hours later…_

"Mike, Mike, wake up, we have to move; Mike, I can't move you on my own, gonna' need a little help."

Harvey, that was Harveys' voice for sure. There was a weird edge to it though, one that wobbled a little and sounded very un-Harvey-like, Mike thought, as he slowly regained consciousness; only to discover that the world around him was crumbling. "Harvey…" he paused, coughing up some of the floating debris around them. "Harvey what the hell?" he questioned, completely lost now. Where was the hurricane? Or the building, for that matter?

The relief on Harveys' face was tangible. "Jesus, c'mon," he helped Mike stand up clumsily, "I'll explain when we're in the other room." He said, as he half dragged his dazed and weary associate across the lobby and into a windowless room that looked to be more or less intact—_were they in the mail room?_, Mike wondered idly.

Once they were inside, Mike remembered he wasn't exactly on good terms with the senior partner and pulled away quickly, missing the flash of hurt that crossed Harveys' face. "What's going on?"

"The hurricane went from mild to bad to worse and as the building was being evacuated, the first floor collapsed." Harvey grimaced, remembering the scene.

He'd been carrying Mike on his back, struggling to keep up with the others as they fretted down the stairs and then he'd lost sight of Jessica and Donna—the first floor was absolutely packed with nervous, frantic, and panicked faculty and lawyers. Suddenly, the floor was trembling beneath his feet and people were in a mad frenzied state and a figure impacted with Harvey, throwing him totally off balance but the Senior Partner had managed to fall forward on his hands and knees, so that he didn't crush the oblivious sleeping associate on his back.

"It's an earthquake!" He heard someone shout over the screaming and the mess of people running past and _over_ him.

"Stay calm and evacuate the building efficiently!" Harvey rolled his eyes—that was definitely Jessica, and she was delirious if she thought anyone would listen at this point.

"Harvey?" Donna. He'd recognize that voice anywhere.

The building was still shaking terribly, the lights were buzzing on and off intermittently, adding to the panic, and just as he'd managed to stand, locking Mike in place, the blonds' chin resting on his shoulder, it started raining plaster—"Oh fuc—" Harvey had uttered, just before half the ceiling collapsed on the few people remaining inside the building.

Mike blinked. "An earth quake?" he could hardly believe it. A hurricane and an earthquake, all in the same day, not three hours apart—he wondered if that was actually plausible or if his bad luck was really spreading to the outskirts of Manhattan.

"The fire department's working on getting the rest of us out of here, but Donna called a few minutes ago and said we'd be here for a couple of hours still. They've stabilized the building though."

Mike could hear them working to make some sort of opening amongst all the rubble outside the mailroom and realized why Harvey had dragged his half-conscious body away—the debris floating around from the plaster was practically everywhere, had he stayed any longer, he might have suffered his second asthma attack that day. He still felt like crap. His shoulder was extremely sore, his entire left leg was one massive bruise, and his head ached—probably from the cold he'd gotten while running in the storm-turned-hurricane, he guessed.

"How do you feel?" Harvey asked, all the while examining his associate for any further injury or assault, personal space be damned.

"You don't care." Mike sighed, attempting to sit up on his own, despite the exhaustion.

"You're wrong," Harvey paused, his tone heavy, "I do care about you Mike."

Mike rolled his eyes. "You care when it's suits you, Harvey, you only care because if I died Jessica would make you hire another associate. That's not caring; I'm just an inconvenience to you, dead."

Harvey nodded, "Can't argue with that." because it was true, and he couldn't rebuke the facts. "You're an even bigger inconvenience to me alive, but I still want you around so answer the damn question already."

Mike grimaced and squinted in the dark, hoping to see the Partner better, to zero avail, "I feel like shit, Harvey." He finally replied.

"Take these, they'll relieve some of the pain in your shoulder, at the very least." Harvey handed Mike two pills and practically force fed them to the kid.

"Where'd you get these?"

"Your bag; apparently the hot doctor who wrote her number on your forearm also prescribed these to you after you went to the hospital for getting shot—why didn't you take these earlier?" Harvey tried, and failed, not to make the question sound like an accusation.

"I needed a clear head in court; I didn't want the case to be thrown out 'cause I was doped up on pain killers, over a scratch." Mike retorted.

Harvey wished the florescent lights would come back on so his associate could cower at the death look he was receiving at the moment. "That thing on your shoulder that required a trip to the ER and several stitches is not just a _scratch_ you moron—Jesus, do you have any sense of self-preservation at all?"

Mike started inching backwards, as far as his aching bones would let him, if only to get away from the senior partner. "Leave me alone," he said, feeling like a petulant child just for uttering those words.

"Like hell I will," Harvey growled, trying to figure out where Mike was in the darkness, among the few other people still stuck inside the collapsed first floor with them.

"Leave me alone!" Mike yelped, surprised, when Harveys' hand reached his uninjured leg, startling him.

"Stop acting like a kid!" Harvey continued to stretch his hand over to pull Mike closer to him, in case something happened again. "C'mere."

"Why should I? You've already made it clear that no matter what I do, I'm just one big inconvenience to you!" Mike griped, pulling away a third time. The pain in his shoulder and even the soreness of his leg were starting to ease up considerably, and Mike was actually grateful for the drugs.

"You're being ridiculous, what does that matter anyway?" and Harvey found himself crawling in the darkness, in search of his inconveniencing associate, damaging the knees of his already damaged designer suit.

Mike huffed and continued to inch away, at this point, not a hundred percent sure how far away they were from one another. He wiped the rubble from the ceiling off his sweaty palms on his dress shirt. "It just does, I don't know."

"Mike, look, you're my only friend, okay? I know I can be a dick a lot of the time, and I was so caught up in my own case today that I completely ignored you and even disregarded any of your attempts to tell me what was wrong, and I'm sorry for that, I'm not good at this socializing thing amongst friends and all that—you're my first, okay?" Harvey breathed out all at once.

Mike sat on the floor, totally immobile for a moment, and was glad the lights were off, because that meant no one could see the dumb grin spread out on his face. It had to be the pain killers, his head insisted. "I'm your first." He repeated teasingly.

Harvey rolled his eyes and bit his lip. Damn kid. "I didn't—that's not—it wasn't supposed to come out like that, I meant, friends."

"What about…"

"Donna is my semi God and Jessica is my mentor and Louis is a pain in the ass and you—you're more than an employee to me, is what I mean to say." Harvey admitted, hoping like hell that the others in this room were either too preoccupied with their own injuries to pay their conversation any mind, or unconscious.

Mike chuckled. "I knew you cared."

"Oh shut up; five minutes ago you were whining about me not caring—make up your mind." Harvey grinned.

Mike smiled in the dark. "What time is it?" he asked, suddenly.

Harvey started at the sudden change of topic and drew out his phone, providing a very dim light, as his cell was on the verge of dying, and checked. "11:45, why?"

"Fifteen more minutes and my bad luck is officially over." Mike sighed in relief.

Harvey raised a brow, "How do you figure?"

"I've had this theory all day that this is a 24 hour kind of thing—and as soon as that clock strikes twelve, I'm free, off the hook, no more cars or guns or robbers or asthma or jerks or pranks or hurricanes or friggin' earthquakes!" Mike said, all in one rushed breathe.

"Jesus Mike, c'mere." Harvey sighed, almost inaudibly.

With just those three words, it seemed the dam burst and Mike let out another breathe that sounded like something between choked laughter and a sob. Mike fumbled in the dark and upon reaching Harvey, practically threw himself on the older man, trembling all over. "I thought I was gonna' die in that house, Harvey." He confided in a whisper, gripping the upper back of his Boss's suit tight. He hadn't realized how frightened he'd been after that particular incident until now, and the suppressed emotions of the day were finally coming to light.

Harvey rubbed Mikes back and let him stumble through his four near death experiences—didn't even complain when tears started wetting the front of his shirt. His shirt was ruined anyway, the blood had probably set by now, and he wasn't about to bring a bloodied shirt to his cleaners'—Cho and his wife, the lovely couple whom owned the Laundromat around the corner from his condo, would definitely freak out.

Wait…blood? Was Mike bleeding? Harvey pulled away from their—what he would later insist was a—very manly embrace. Blind fingers traced over Mikes' chest in the dark.

"Harvey, what—" Mike reached toward his abdomen where Harveys' hands were starting to roam, and came up with a familiar sticky substance; he lifted his fingers hesitantly over to his nose and sniffed at it. Quickly, he recoiled. It had the offending scent of iron. "Harvey, this is blood." He uttered.

"Where else are you hurt? Did you open your stitches?" Harvey demanded, feeling sick all of a sudden.

Mike shook his head, then replied verbally when he realized Harvey couldn't see him. "No, no, I didn't; nothing really hurts…" Maybe it was the pain killers' preventing him from feeling whatever it was that was bleeding? He thought to himself.

**BUZZ**

The lights flickered on and off and then on again, and although it was a dim fluorescent lighting at best, it was enough to illuminate their surroundings and one another.

Six other associates were in their midst, all panicking and calling their loved ones, not paying much mind to the lights or the senior partner and his associate in the corner of the mail room, next to a desk.

Mike stumbled back. "Shit, oh shit, shit, shit." Became his mantra.

Harvey raised a brow and looked down, to see what had the blonde reeling with obscenities. Blood smeared the entirety of his once ivory dress shirt. A pipe, messuring in width nearly five inches, protruded from the wound in his abdomen. "Oh." He muttered.

"No, no, not 'oh', more like fuck; Harvey, you have a pipe sticking out of you!" Mike panicked. "How the hell did you not notice?"

"Doesn't really hurt," Harvey shrugged eloquently.

"H-how did that even happen?" Mikes' hands flailed uselessly, not really sure what he could do for the man in these conditions they were in. They were in the damn mail room for Gods' sake. Couldn't exactly produce surgical tools and bandaging out of thin air.

Harvey rolled his eyes heavenward, "Oh let me see, perhaps when the building collapsed, Sherlock."

Mike set his jaw and glared at the older man, "Okay, being injured doesn't suddenly give you license to be a dick, you know."

"Don't need one, I'm certified." Harvey replied back smugly, curiously inspecting the gaping wound in his midriff.

"Stop poking at it!" Mike admonished, slapping away the man's hand.

"Ouch."

Mike looked stricken. "Does it hurt?"

"Yeah, you slapped my hand." Harvey sniped.

"I meant that huge hole in the middle of—"

"It's 11:59." Harvey interrupted.

"What?"

"One more minute and no more bad lu—"

Someone screamed in the background and everything went black.


	9. Chapter 9

Harvey woke up in a white room and an incessant beeping noise.

He wished it would cease. He had a humongous headache.

There was a weight on his chest that was oddly comforting, and so he didn't even try to push it off. He lay there in somewhat of a daze and stared up at the dull ceiling. Where the hell was he? What was going on?

The smell of anesthesia and other chemicals and drugs were intruding upon his senses-and then it hit him altogether and very abruptly. Mike.

"Mike..." he wanted to scream the name and get up and go looking for the pup, but all he could do was wheeze through the sudden pain.

"Just breathe hon," Donnas' voice floated from up above somewhere in the sky. "Just press this for some more good stuff." her delicate fingers caressed his hand as she pressed his thumb against a button on his bedside. Almost immediately, the edge was taken off of his pain, and Harvey became a little more aware of himself and his surroundings.

"Wher'd Mike g'?" his mouth felt like it was full of cotton. He could barely get any intelligible words out; but Donna, who'd been with him for forever, understand perfectly.

"Look down." there was a hint of a smile in her tone.

Harvey looked, only to be ambushed by a head full of his blonde associate. He blinked a couple of times. So that had been the weight...

Mike was peacefully asleep against his chest. His arm was attached to an IV, he had on a breathing tube, taped to his face, his leg was in a cast, his chest was wrapped tightly in gauze, as was his shoulder.

"Looks like shit." Harvey mumbled, putting his arm around the younger man and drawing him closer.

Donna was openly surprised by the action, but quickly recovered, and simply smiled. "Speak for yourself there, Harvey."

Harvey grimaced. His mid-section was covered in gauze as well, and his back was killing him. "Yea." he agreed, after a moment of silence. "What happened?"

Donna sighed. "When the firefighters finally managed to make an opening, the buildings' infrastructure-or what was left of it, at least-couldn't hold and collapsed even further. You and Mike were found unconscious There were a lot of minor injuries among the staff-you pretty much got the brunt of it, though, and Mike, too, but not from the building collapsing." she sighed again and went over to the other side of the bed, and softly patted Mikes' tufts of blonde hair, like a doting mother. "Poor thing's been through hell." she muttered. "You've been out for the last three days, Harvey."

Harveys' eyes widened like saucers. "What?" He'd lost three whole days? That couldn't be right.

"The doctors say you lost a lot of blood, but that no vital organs-thank the Lord-were nicked so after plenty of rest, you should make a full recovery." she beamed down at the two men. "Mike was also admitted to the hospital. He caught pneumonia " she grimaced.

Harvey blinked down at his associate in surprise. "Pneumonia?" he repeated, wrapping his arm tighter around the younger man, and resting his chin atop Mikes' head.

"Yea, it was really bad. He's steadily getting better though. His fever dropped yesterday and he convinced the nurses to let him visit you late last night. He ended up passing out here, and he was just too cute and cuddly looking at your side like that for anyone to wake him up and get him back to his room." Donna explained.

Harvey smirked.

After some more mindless conversation, updates on work, clients, and the Pearson and Hardman buildings' infrastructure repairs, Donna had to leave. She kissed both Harvey and Mike on the foreheads before strutting off, telling Harvey to say "Hi" to the pup for her when he awoke.

Harvey drifted off to sleep a few minutes later and didn't wake up again until later that afternoon.

Mike was still in his arms, in dreamland somewhere, breathing deeply against his chest.

Harvey pressed the button on the railing of his bed for pain meds after a moment, and sighed in relief when the pain in his mid-section lessened to a more tolerable degree. He channel surfed for a bit, and eventually became restless with boredom.

With the hand that was wrapped securely around Mike, he tapped the kids' shoulder. When that didn't work, he nudged him. After that failed as well, he called Mikes' name. "Hey...Mike...Mike...Michael...wakey wakey." he sighed. "I'm bored!" he whined, feeling all too much like a petulant child. "C'mooon Mike...wake up. Entertain me...talk to me..." he poked at Mikes' cheeks insistently. He was so so bored.

"Mmm." Mikes' eyelids fluttered open. "H'rvey?" all at once, he woke up, startled to see who he was sleeping on top of. His eyes went wide. "Harvey! You're awake!" he smiled.

"Nice deduction there, Einstein." Harvey teased. Then as Mike got up, propping himself on one elbow, and was getting ready to hop off the hospital bed, Harvey got the sudden impulse to place the associate right back atop his chest, where he'd been so comfortably resting seconds before.

And so he did.

Mike blinked, as he felt his head being cushioned by the warmth of Harveys' firm chest. "Harvey?" he questioned, letting himself rest there a moment, holding himself rigidly still.

"Sorry." Harvey uttered. "Just umm...we-I almost lost you. Can you just stay there a little longer?" the words coming out of his mouth sounded alien even to him. He cleared his voice. "You know, if you want to, I mean-"

Mike laughed. "Shh," he curled up against Harvey and sighed contently. "How are you feeling?" he felt oddly right in this position. He could hear the senior partners' heart beat resound loud and clear, feel the rise and fall of his chest-it was pretty perfect, basically.

Harvey calmed down and relaxed back into his bed, "Fine; a little out of it, but I'm fine. How about you? You're probably giving me your cold right now, you know." Harvey wrapped both arms around the young man and held him even closer.

Mike grinned. "I'm feeling a lot better. And I'll make you chicken soup if you catch it." he promised, relishing in the warmth of Harveys' body.

"I'll hold you to that, you know." Harvey lay his head against the associates' once more and closed his eyes. "You know Mike, I really am sorry for all that shit I gave you-I should have known something was off, I should have listened to you."

Mike sighed. "I shouldn't have come in, in the first place." he smirked. "After the car incident, I should've called it a day and told you what had happened, from the ER. But you know...I'm kind of glad all of that crap happened. Being shot and hit by a car and locked in a file room, all of that sucked, but I did get to meet some pretty great people because of it."

Harvey let out a snort. "I'll set up safe play dates for you next time you want to socialize, Mike." Mike laughed. "Really though, that day should go in the Guinness World book of records as the most terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day."

Mike laughed again, this time softer, as the Sandman drew him closer to sleep. "Definitely."


End file.
